THE history of the white settlement in Queensland begins with
the year 1824, when some forty convicts, accompanied by a guard
of soldiers, were placed, first at Redcliffe, on the shores of
Moreton Bay, and later at a spot, sixteen miles up the river,
which is now the site of Brisbane. Before the close of four years
the population numbered one thousand persons, and the district
continued to be used as a penal settlement until 1839. Unhappily,
the indifference to the spiritual needs of the convicts shown
by the Government in connection with the establishment of the
original penal colony at Botany Bay was repeated at Brisbane.
No chaplain was sent, and the provision of a few Bibles, entrusted
to the officers in charge, was regarded as adequate. However,
in 1843, when the district was thrown open for free settlement
and Captain Wickham appointed first police magistrate, Bishop
Broughton, within whose [119/120] jurisdiction Brisbane at that
time lay, took the opportunity of commissioning the Rev. J. Gregor,
formerly a Presbyterian minister, whom he had admitted to Holy
Orders, to minister to the settlers. The white population at
the time was very small, and consisted of two hundred and seventeen
persons in the Moreton Bay district, and three hundred and twenty-five
settled on the rich plains of the Darling Downs. For five years
Mr. Gregor ministered to these people, paying occasional visits
to the Darling Downs, and penetrating even to New England, several
hundred miles from his base. In 1848 he was drowned in attempting
to cross a flooded creek, and the district remained for a time
without a clergyman. In the meantime the Diocese of Newcastle
had been formed, and Moreton Bay came under the jurisdiction
of Bishop Tyrrell, one of whose first acts was to send a young
deacon, the Rev. Benjamin Glennie, to fill the vacancy. In a
building formerly used as a carpenter's shop, and lent by the
Government as a church, Mr. Glennie, subsequently Archdeacon,
commenced a ministry in Queensland, which continued for a period
of fifty-two years. Bishop Tyrrell twice visited Brisbane, for
the first time in 1848, when he spent a month [120/121] in organizing
the details of Church work, and later (185o), when he travelled
from Newcastle overland to lay the foundation-stone of S. John's
Church, which, until its demolition in 1903, was used as the
cathedral of the diocese.

THE DIOCESE OF BRISBANE

In 1859 Queensland was separated from the mother-colony of
New South Wales, and as soon as it became certain that the grant
of self-government would be made, Bishop Tyrrell wrote to the
Church authorities in England, urging them to assist in forming
the new colony into a separate diocese. He himself granted a
loan of £2,300 from the endowment of the See of Newcastle,
and with the help of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge
and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and an English
committee, the minimum sum required was lodged in the hands of
the Colonial Bishoprics Council in 1858. In the following year
the Right Rev. E. W. Tufnell, Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford,
was consecrated to the new see.

Bishop Tufnell landed in Brisbane to find that a month previously
the new Legislature had passed an Act by which all State aid
to religion [121/122] was henceforth to be discontinued, and
that he had undertaken the administration of a diocese virtually
unendowed and staffed by three clergy only. Aided by an annual
grant of £30o from the Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel, and with the assistance of six clergy who accompanied
him from England, the Bishop was able to provide for the chief
centres of population; but from the beginning to the end of his
episcopate the work of Church extension in the huge diocese was
seriously crippled through lack of clergy. Land, however, was
given and purchased, and in the course of a few years sites,
in addition to those already granted by the Government prior
to separation, were secured in localities where the population
was likely to increase. Eight years, however, elapsed before
a diocesan synod was constituted.

The whole question of self-government in the Church, as we
have seen, was involved in obscurity, and at this time was being
fiercely debated. Naturally, therefore, Bishop Tufnell may have
desired to watch the issue of the controversy before committing
his young diocese to what might prove an erroneous line of action.
In 1868, however, a conference was summoned to consider a draft
constitution prepared by Mr. [122/123] Justice Lutwyche, at which
it was decided that Brisbane should follow the example of Adelaide
and New Zealand by basing its constitution upon the principle
of consensual compact rather than upon that of legislative enactment.
This decision left the synod free during a time of tentative
construction to regulate its own affairs without let or hindrance
from the State. In after years, when the working of the original
constitution had been tested by experience, the synod sought
and obtained from the Legislature an Enabling Act, applicable
to the Church throughout Queensland, which simplified and facilitated
diocesan administration.

In 1874 Bishop Tufnell resigned, after fourteen years of particularly
difficult pioneer work, and was succeeded by the Bishop of Perth
(the Right Rev. M. B. Hale), who was translated on the appointment
of the Australian Bishops. As one of the Archdeacons of the Diocese
of Adelaide, Dr. Hale had gained considerable colonial experience,
and had especially interested himself, both at Adelaide and Perth,
in the evangelization of the aborigines. But he was already advanced
in years, and the change from a Crown colony, with a State-aided
Church, to a somewhat turbulent [123/124] diocese, scantily furnished
with funds, involved a severe strain upon one no longer in the
vigour of youth.

A drift of settlement northwards had set in before Bishop
Tufnell's departure, and prior to his resignation the Metropolitan
had made proposals for forming the whole of North Queensland,
including a small strip within the Brisbane boundary, into a
new diocese. In 1876 this project, which had received the warm
support of the new Bishop of Brisbane, was realized, and though
the surrender of territory was small, he was relieved of his
responsibilities to a growing population which, lying outside
his diocese, naturally looked to Brisbane for assistance.

Soon after his arrival in Queensland, Bishop Hale was involved
in a prolonged struggle upon the education question. In 1875
the State, as in Victoria, assumed the whole conduct of primary
education, which in five years' time was to be free, secular,
and compulsory. This period of grace was occupied by a fierce
contest between the combined forces of the Anglican and Roman
Churches on the one hand, as advocates of the continuance of
the denominational system, and on the other the whole body of
Nonconformist [124/125] opinion ranged in support of the Government
proposals. Each side nailed its colours to the mast, no via
media seems to have been entertained, and in the end the
Government triumphed, with the result that public education throughout
the colony was secularized. For the last seventeen years Churchmen
have been attempting to obtain from the Legislature concessions
on the subject of religious education, which would have been
welcomed and probably could have been obtained with ease during
the time of struggle, and in these attempts they have been supported
by the majority of the Free Churches. Comment seems to be superfluous.

On the resignation of Bishop Hale, in 1884, the ' Archbishop
of Canterbury, to whom the nomination had been delegated by synod,
appointed a prominent London priest, the Rev. W. T. Thornhill
Webber, Vicar of S. John's, Holborn. Bishop Webber was a man
of vigorous energy and statesmanlike qualities; and the diocese,
which had gradually drifted into a species of parochial congregationalism,
and had made little effort to provide for the stream of immigrants
continually flowing into the colony, soon felt the grasp of a
master-hand. Sites were secured, and small [125/126] wooden churches
built in every direction, whilst the large unwieldy parishes
were subdivided and placed in charge of young clergy imported
from England; the enactments of synod were also reviewed and
re-moulded so as to strengthen episcopal authority. These changes
were not introduced without creating some soreness, but, ruthless
as they may have seemed at the time, the situation demanded drastic
measures. A survey of the diocese, made during the first years
of his episcopate, showed the Bishop that the work of supervision
was far beyond the ability of any one man, and that the central
district of Queensland, already constituted by the State a separate
division for civil purposes, formed a suitable area for a new
diocese. Pending the raising of an endowment for the new see,
the Bishop, with consent of synod, appointed his Archdeacon,
the Ven. Nathaniel Dawes, as Bishop-Coadjutor, and delegated
to him the oversight of this portion of the diocese. Four years
later the endowment fund (£10,000) was completed, and Bishop
Dawes unanimously elected first Bishop of Rockhampton. By this
subdivision the area of the Brisbane Diocese was reduced by 223,000
square miles. To the vacancy in the Coadjutor-Bishopric the Very
[126/127] Rev. J. F. Stretch, Dean of Ballarat, was appointed
in 1895.

An erstwhile member of the School Board for London, the Bishop
naturally took deep interest in the education question, and in
1891 was instrumental in founding, after the example of Victoria,
a Bible in State Schools League, which had as its object the
introduction into Queensland of the religious clauses of the
New South Wales Education Act. Little was effected for some years,
but in 1900, through the energetic action of its secretary, the
Rev. G. H. Frodsham, the League undertook a voluntary referendum
in order to obtain the views of the parents of scholars, which
resulted in an overwhelming majority declaring themselves in
favour of the introduction of religious instruction into the
schools. Changes in Government prevented any further steps being
taken, but more than one Premier has promised to submit to Parliament
a Bill empowering the Government to carry out a formal referendum
of the whole electorate on this question. [The Referendum Bill
has recently been passed.]

Financial disasters, which seriously affected diocesan endowments,
the necessity for an increased supply of clergy, and the raising
of funds [127/128] for the erection of a cathedral caused Bishop
Webber to undertake frequent visits to England, and in this work
more than a third of his episcopate of eighteen years was consumed.
The policy of relying upon English support, entailing frequent
and prolonged periods of absence from his see, is open to question.
Financially the diocese was unquestionably advantaged, for through
these mendicant journeys, the Bishop, who possessed singular
gifts in this direction, succeeded in raising a sum of over £70,000
for various diocesan purposes, including the endowment of the
Rockhampton Bishopric, the endowment of a Mission Chaplains'
Fund, the replacement of capital lost through floods and bad
investments, and the provision for the erection of a cathedral.
In connection with the supply of clergy the Bishop for some time
relied entirely upon English resources, and was fortunate in
the assistance of such men as the Bishops of Rockhampton, New
Guinea, and North Queensland, all of whom originally came to
Australia at his invitation. But he was not unmindful of the
need of making provision for the supply and training of local
candidates for the ministry, and set apart one of the cathedral
canonries to be held by [128/129] the principal of the theological
college which he founded. The institution, established in 1896,
has been instrumental in training a number of clergy now working
in the diocese, and through a bequest of Bishop Webber, is now
possessed of spacious buildings near Brisbane.

Whilst in England, engaged upon the task of collecting funds
for the cathedral, the Bishop was stricken by a fatal illness,
and returned to his diocese to die in 1903. Synod in the first
instance offered the vacant bishopric to the Bishop of Ballarat,
but on his declining, delegated the appointment to the Archbishop
of Canterbury, who selected the Rev. St. Clair Donaldson, a son
of the first Premier of New South Wales, and at that time Vicar
of Hornsey. He reached the diocese at the end of 1904, and since
that date has addressed himself vigorously to the strengthening
of the Home Mission work of the diocese, and to the wider duties
of his position of Metropolitan to which he has been recently
appointed.

THE DIOCESE OF NORTH QUEENSLAND

Until its subdivision by the creation of the Missionary Diocese
of Carpentaria, the Diocese [129/130] of North Queensland occupied
the whole of the northern portion of the State from Thursday
Island in the north to an imaginary line drawn south of Mackay,
comprising altogether about 250,000 square miles. In 1876, when
the diocese was formed, the greater part of this country was
unexplored, and inhabited by aborigines, the white population
being settled chiefly on the southern portion of the coast in
the neighbourhood of Townsville, growing sugar-cane, and also
in the interior, engaged in pastoral pursuits. Early in 1879,
the Rev. G. H. Stanton, Vicar of S. Giles' in the Fields, who
had been appointed to the new bishopric by Bishop Barker, reached
the scene of his labours. Up to this time the district, though
nominally under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan at Sydney,
was practically regarded as an appendage of the Diocese of Brisbane;
but the 750 miles which intervened between it and the capital
of the colony, virtually cut it off from any direct supervision.
The clergy were few, whilst the industrial development, and consequent
increase of population, was rapid. On the coast the growth of
the sugar industry was attracting not only planters, but caused
the introduction of large numbers of South Sea Islanders, for
the [130/131] cultivation of the cane at cheap rates. In the
interior, the discovery of gold, and other minerals, brought
a large influx of miners, and of those who supplied their wants.
Thus the work which lay before Bishop Stanton was one of peculiar
difficulty. He had to lay the whole foundations of diocesan institutions,
and cope with an advancing population, scattered over a large
area, on account of the sporadic character of the mineral deposits.
That he was able even in a small measure to shoulder this burden
is no slight testimony to his resourcefulness and power of evoking
lay help. Like Bishop Webber of Brisbane, he was dependent upon
England for his clergy, and equally fortunate in their selection,
since four at least of the former members of his staff have been
entrusted with positions of the highest responsibility in the
Australian Church, namely, Albert Maclaren, the devoted founder
of the Anglican Mission in New Guinea, and the present Bishops
of Goulburn, Riverina, and Carpentaria. The extent of the diocese,
and the absence of facilities for intercommunication, rendered
diocesan cohesion and synodical activity difficult. None the
less, organization slowly grew, and the number of clergy advanced
from five to eighteen. During [131/132] the later years of his
episcopate the progress of railway construction materially assisted
travel; but the Gulf of Carpentaria still remained unconnected,
and could only be approached by sea, whilst the western districts
on the South Australian border continued almost entirely without
spiritual ministrations. Conscious that the needs of the diocese
demanded a younger man, Bishop Stanton accepted translation in
1891 to the See of Newcastle, which, with a smaller area, and
long-established institutions, he felt to be within the range
of his powers.

In selecting a successor, the choice of synod fell upon Canon
Barlow, Vicar of the cathedral church, who as a layman had accompanied
Bishop Stanton from England, and had spent the whole of his ministerial
life in the diocese. Some exception was taken by certain of the
Australian Bishops to the confirmation of this election on the
ground that the Bishop-elect did not possess a University degree.
The objection, however, was overruled as presenting no valid
hindrance to the effective exercise of episcopal powers. Notwithstanding
the growth of an urban population both at Townsville, and in
such large mining centres as Charters Towers, which with its
25,000 inhabitants [132/133] had become the second largest town
in the State, the diocese continued to retain its missionary
character. In addition to an estimated aboriginal population
of 30,000, no less than 12,000 heathen aliens, consisting of
Chinese, South Sea Islanders, Japanese, Manilla men, and coolies
from different parts of the world, became resident within its
boundaries. Probably in no part of Australia has "the colour
problem" presented such serious issues, nor can its true
solution be said to have been found in the restrictive legislation
of the Commonwealth. The Church, however, has not been unmindful
of her duty, either towards the ancient inhabitants of the land,
or towards these heathen sl4angers. With the assistance of the
Australian Board of Missions, a mission to the aborigines was
established in 1891 on a government reserve in the neighbourhood
of Cairns, which, under the Rev. E. R. Gribble, himself the son
of a missionary to the aborigines, has been successful in inducing
the blacks to settle and cultivate the land, and, generally,
to embrace Christianity and the customs of civilization. Missions
also have been founded for South Sea Islanders on the sugar plantations
at Mackay and the Herbert River, which have yielded to the [133/134]
New Guinea Mission not a few promising pupils as teachers; whilst
at Townsville the Chinese residents have been placed under the
care of a Chinese catechist, and possess a church of their own.
The northern district of Queensland has felt acutely the change
from private ownership to that of public companies, which has
taken place in connection with pastoral property, and, though
the mineral wealth is great, nearly the whole of the dividends
are paid to non-resident shareholders; whilst the legislation
of the Federal Parliament has seriously affected the sugar plantations.
In these circumstances the diocese found itself severely straitened
in finance, and the Bishop proceeded to England for men and money.
One outcome of his visit was the commencement of a scheme for
the subdivision of the diocese. By 1900 the minimum endowment
had been raised, and in the same year the Diocese of Carpentaria
was formally constituted, with the Right Rev. Gilbert White as
its first Bishop. Dr. Barlow had hardly time to experience the
benefit to his own diocese, thus occasioned, when the Bishopric
of Goulburn became vacant, to which see he accepted translation.

For the second time the synod, in 1902, selected [134/135]
as Bishop a clergyman working in Australia, the Rev. G. H. Frodsham,
Rector of Toowong, in the Diocese of Brisbane, to whom reference
has been made already in connection with the Bible in State Schools
League. Both on this ground, and also on account of Bishop Frodsham's
efforts, as a member of the Brisbane Synod, to forward provincial
action, the appointment was full of promise, for no one in Queensland
had worked more earnestly to secure these two objects, the latter
of which he was soon to see realized. His experience shortly
after reaching his diocese serves to illustrate some of the difficulties
to which Church work is exposed in tropical latitudes. A cyclone
of extraordinary violence swept the coast at Townsville and its
immediate neighbourhood with such disastrous results that not
only was the partially completed cathedral unroofed, but every
church in Townsville and within a radius of fifty miles was levelled
to the ground. The Bishop immediately appealed in person to the
southern dioceses for help, and was successful in raising a sum
sufficient to replace the buildings. Three years later a similar
catastrophe befell the aboriginal mission at Yarrabah, and once
more the Church in Australia provided the bulk of the [135/136]
funds necessary to repair the loss. In the questions of the supply
of clergy and of the heathen aliens the Diocese of North Queensland
has serious problems, the solution of which will be aided, no
doubt, by the collective wisdom of the recently-formed province.

THE DIOCESE OF ROCKHAMPTON

The Diocese of Rockhampton, created in 1892, consists of a
comparatively narrow strip of territory running westward and
inland to a great distance. The country is occupied by large
sheep and cattle stations, whilst small townships are dotted
down at considerable distances from one another. Rockhampton,
the see town and port for the district, lies at the head of navigation,
about twerty miles up the Fitzroy River. The only other town
of any size is Mount Morgan, a mining centre of considerable
richness.

With a vast hinterland containing no large centres of population,
the chief problem of the diocese lay in the provision of spiritual
ministrations for the western districts. Here the Bishop realized
an idea which had been long suggested as the best method of mitigating
the evils of isolation and the consequent spiritual decline of
the clergy [136/137] working in the "Bush." Aided by
a strong committee and diocesan auxiliary in England, he founded
a "Bush Brotherhood" at Longreach, the terminus of
the Western Railway, the members of which, living under a simple
rule, were to make periodic circuits through the surrounding
country, and, by mutual support in the common home, ,would not
only assist one another in maintaining devotion, but also cope
far more effectively and economically with the conditions of
"Bush" life than if scattered in widely distant centres.
Bishop Dawes was fortunate in securing, as the first head of
the Longreach Brotherhood, the Rev. G. D. Halford, who had been
sent out from Jarrow by Dr. Westcott to occupy the position.
The unquestioned success of the experiment has been in no small
measure due to his tact, wisdom, and devotion. Imitation is the
sincerest form of flattery, and the fact that "Bush Brotherhoods"
have been successfully started at Dubbo, as already stated, and
at Charleville, in the Brisbane Diocese, shows the value, to
themselves and to others, of communities of clergy leading a
common life in the midst of a scattered population.

Rockhampton, like Brisbane, has depended chiefly upon England
for supplies of clergy and [137/138] for some financial assistance,
and its history of monetary and other struggles suggests the
question as to whether the policy of subdivision, in cases where
the endowment provided is slender and the latent resources small,
really contributes to the Church's strength. As a rule, the endowments
of the mother diocese are not availab e for the daughter, and
she is cast off in infancy, as it were, to lead for years a starved
life, dependent upon outside assistance for her sustenance. "The
day of small things" is not always an inspiring one for
clergy or laity.

THE DIOCESE OF CARPENTARIA

The youngest of the Queensland dioceses, Carpentaria, was
founded in 1900, and presents the unique feature of containing
territory in the States of Queensland and South Australia. It
consists of the whole of the northern portion of the former,
including the Cape York Peninsula and Thursday Island, in which
the see town is situate, and the greater part of the Northern
Territory of South Australia, the descriptive title of which
might well be altered. The coloured population of the diocese,
which is made up of thirty-five thousand aboriginals and upwards
of seven [138/139] thousand Japanese, Chinese, and other aliens,
largely outnumbers the white settlers, and the work, therefore,
is chiefly of a missionary character. Soon after his appointment
Bishop White accomplished a remarkable journey right through
the heart of the Northern Territory, from Port Darwin on the
coast to Oonadatta, the terminus of the South Australian Railway,
a distance of one thousand three hundred miles. The journey,
made with the object of acquainting himself with the conditions
of life in the interior, occupied ten weeks of continuous riding.

Reference has been made to the missionary nature of the work.
At Thursday Island classes are provided for the Japanese and
South Sea Islanders, and the vicar has under his charge the natives
of several adjacent islands. On the eastern shore of the Gulf
of Carpentaria, between the Mitchell and Nassau rivers, the Government,
at the instance of the Bishop, proclaimed a reserve of about
seven hundred square miles for aborigines; and under the superintendence
of the Rev. E. R. Gribble, whose place was, later, taken for
a short time by a Melbourne clergyman, the Rev. E. R. Chase,
a mission has been successfully started, which is winning the
appreciations [139/140] of the white settlers in the neighbourhood,
and receives support from the majority of the Australian dioceses.
Among the aborigines of the Northern Territory the Anglican Church
is represented by a mission at Karparlgoo, which is doing much
to rescue the poor blacks from the disastrous effects of opium
purveyed by the Chinese.

In order to train and educate clergy for this far-off diocese,
the Bishop, assisted by funds from the Society for the Propagation
of the Gospel and a portion of the offerings made at the jubilee
of the Australian Board of Missions, founded a theological college
at Thursday Island, in which a small number of students are being
trained. The climate, however, is not provocative of mental activity,
and the wiser policy would seem to be that of sending candidates
to the Brisbane College, which should be regarded as a provincial
institution. In view of the multifarious nature of the work and
the large extent of the jurisdiction, it would be difficult to
find a diocese in the whole Anglican communion which deserves
better of the Church or furnishes a stronger appeal for external
assistance.

The coping stone to the organization of the [140/141] Church
in Queensland was placed in position in August, 1905, when the
formal constitution of the province was promulgated by the Primate.
This consummation had not been reached without much negotiation
and tedious delay, chiefly owing to the unwillingness of the
Diocese of North Queensland to entertain the scheme. On the appointment
of Bishop Frodsham, however, the objections felt were removed,
especially since the formation of Carpentaria had added a fourth
diocese to the proposed province. At a conference of representatives
held in Brisbane at the close of 1904, a constitution, drafted
by Mr. Justice Chubb, was agreed upon, by which Brisbane was
recognized as the Metropolitan See, and the method of electing
the Archbishop provided for by the constitution of a joint committee,
in which the Diocese of Brisbane, on the one hand, and the suffragan
dioceses on the other, are given an equal voice; also the powers
of the provincial synod were defined, so as to make its legislation
dominant in all matters of provincial concern.

After these proposals had been approved by the Queensland
dioceses and submitted to the Primate, the formal promulgation
followed, and in October of the same year the Diocese of New
Guinea was [141/142] incorporated within the province. A year
later, on October 23rd, the first meeting of the provincial synod
was held, at which the Bishop of Brisbane was formally recognized
as Metropolitan and Archbishop, and the necessary legislation
for the administration of the province was passed. Both through
the visitations of the Archbishop, which have carried him as
far as New Guinea, and the increased intercommunion through the
wider interchange of clergy, the stronger dioceses are helping
the weaker, and the new provincial organization is giving cohesion
and stability to the Church in Queensland.